Luke Bell shows off his 480km/h record-breaking drone. Picture: Supplied
Were you impressed by Red Bull’s 350km/h drone that chases Max Verstappen’s F1 car around the track? Of course you were. But did you know South Africa has a drone that’s said to be even faster?
A father and son team from Worcester in the Western Cape recently broke the Guinness World Record for the world’s fastest battery-powered, remote-controlled (RC) quadcopter.
Luke Bell and his father Mike managed to achieve an average speed of 480.23km/h (298.47mph) by doing speed runs in opposite directions to negate the wind, taking the official world record in the process.
The previous world record was set at 360.50km/h.
The local drone builders say their creation can accelerate from zero to 300km/h in just two seconds and reach a theoretical top speed of 510km/h.
“Last year I created the fastest drone in the world, but I always felt like it was a kind of prototype and not quite fast enough. This year my dad and I decided to improve every aspect of the original Peregrine drone to create an epic successor,” said son Luke Bell.
“And yes, this drone is even faster than the Red Bull Formula 1 drone!”
The father and son pair spent around four months working on their latest quadcopter, and have documented the process in the YouTube video below. Skip to 8:49 to see the first high speed runs.
IOL
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